WALL Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich went on trial behind closed doors in Russia today, 15 months after his arrest on espionage charges that he, his employer and the US government vehemently deny.

The 32-year-old journalist appeared the court at Yekaterinburg in a glass defendants’ cage, his head shaved and wearing a black-and-blue plaid shirt.

Journalists were allowed into the courtroom for a few minutes before proceedings were closed. Also briefly permitted in court were two consular officers from the US embassy in Moscow.

The hearing ended after about two hours, with the next one scheduled for August 13, court officials said.

Jay Conti, executive vice-president and general counsel for Dow Jones, publisher of the Journal, described the trial as a sham in an interview with the Associated Press.

“He was an accredited journalist doing journalism, and this is a sham trial, bogus charges that are completely trumped up,” Mr Conti said.

The US-born son of immigrants from the USSR, Mr Gershkovich is the first Western journalist arrested on espionage charges in post-Soviet Russia.

Authorities detained him when he was on a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg, in the Ural Mountains and claimed he was gathering secret information for the US.

The US State Department has declared him “wrongfully detained,” thereby committing the government to assertively seek his release.

The Journal has worked diligently to keep the case in the public eye and it has become an issue in the combative months leading up to the US presidential election.